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I myself am making an experiment with 5 varieties, 2 of them will remain in the soil for the winter (Dfa Koppen climate, something like USDA 8a closer to New York and on the East Coast)... so we will see in about a year or so.

There is an extremely small selection of plantains commonly available in the US, none of which are likely particularly hardy. I think trying any of them would be worth a shot since there are so few to choose from anyway. None of them have their original names, but 2 common ones are 'African Rhino Horn', 'Dwarf Puerto Rican Plantain' and 'French Horn'. Careful though, if you are looking for true plantains, because there are many banana varieties out there that people will call plantains because they make good cooking bananas, but they are not plantains. People who have grown up with them and know what a plantain is like will be disappointed by the other cooking bananas.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Hawaii and Washington since 2004.

Furthering the confusion- In Colombia my wife's family talked about "Guineos"
Were like Plantians but different- they used them in soups, but they broke up more (if I understood correctly). Not to be confused with the way Puertoricans use the word Guineos, to refer to all Bananas.

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I don't know about the Guineos of Colombia, but I can tell you about plantains.

Plantains are a very specific genetic group of bananas, there are many many varieties in this group. They tend to be cooked, but this is not inherently required, just generally preferred. I have eaten raw ripe plantains and they are fine.

The difference between a cooking banana and a dessert banana is purely cultural. Yes, its true that some varieties tend to be more commonly preferred by a large number of cultures used in a certain way, but there is really no clear difference and there are too many "exceptions" to form a rigid pattern. Basically, if a variety is commonly cooked in one region, the people there will call it a cooking banana, and if it is commonly eaten as a dessert fruit, then its called as such. The exact same variety may be regarded as a strict cooking banana, a strict dessert banana, or somewhere in between just depending on who you ask.

For a good, easy to get, easy to grow banana that lends itself well to cooking, 'Orinoco' is a good choice.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Hawaii and Washington since 2004.